Raphael John-Lall

Busi­ness cham­bers in south Trinidad have of­fered favourable as­sess­ments of the 2027 na­tion­al bud­get, wel­com­ing its fo­cus on agri­cul­ture, health­care, en­er­gy and in­fra­struc­ture, while high­light­ing mea­sures they be­lieve could sup­port busi­ness­es, im­prove liveli­hoods and gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Fyz­abad Cham­ber of Com­merce, Siparia Cham­ber of Com­merce and Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce point­ed to ini­tia­tives rel­e­vant to their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties, al­though ques­tions re­main about im­ple­men­ta­tion and the need to trans­late the an­nounced mea­sures in­to tan­gi­ble eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo de­liv­ered the na­tion­al bud­get for fis­cal year 2027 on Mon­day with pro­ject­ed gov­ern­ment ex­pen­di­ture of $63.368 bil­lion and rev­enue es­ti­mat­ed at $59.729 bil­lion, leav­ing a deficit of $3.639 bil­lion.

For fis­cal 2027, Gov­ern­ment is work­ing with an oil price as­sump­tion of US$77 per bar­rel, up from US$73.25 in 2026. The nat­ur­al gas price as­sump­tion has al­so in­creased to US$5 per mil­lion British ther­mal units (MMB­tu), com­pared with US$4.25 in 2026.

The pro­posed re­open­ing of the oil re­fin­ery, low­er agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion costs and ex­pand­ed health­care ser­vices are among the key mea­sures wel­comed by the Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce in the 2027 Na­tion­al Bud­get.

Cham­ber Pres­i­dent Ki­ran Singh told the Busi­ness Guardian that the ini­tia­tives could im­prove food se­cu­ri­ty, at­tract in­vest­ment and gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change, while help­ing to im­prove liveli­hoods across the coun­try.

“The food im­port bill con­tin­ues to de­mand a sig­nif­i­cant amount of for­eign ex­change on a year-on-year ba­sis.”

He wel­comed the re­moval of tax­es on agri­cul­tur­al ma­chin­ery, equip­ment, fer­tilis­er and feed, say­ing low­er costs could en­cour­age young en­tre­pre­neurs to pur­sue hy­dro­pon­ics, green­house farm­ing and oth­er agribusi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Singh said the Farm Busi­ness For­mal­i­sa­tion Pro­gramme could im­prove farm­ers’ ac­cess to fi­nanc­ing and land, while help­ing ex­porters meet in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards. He wel­comed the re­open­ing of the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal, say­ing it could ease pres­sure on the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and re­duce wait­ing times for pa­tients in cen­tral and south­ern Trinidad.

He al­so high­light­ed the pro­posed pros­thet­ic cen­tre, mea­sures to ad­dress pe­ri­od pover­ty and ex­pand­ed spe­cialised med­ical ser­vices in To­ba­go, which could re­duce the need for pa­tients to trav­el to Trinidad for treat­ment.

For San Fer­nan­do, Singh said re­open­ing the oil re­fin­ery could de­liv­er sig­nif­i­cant down­stream ben­e­fits. He al­so point­ed to the wa­ter­front de­vel­op­ment project and wel­comed ad­di­tion­al re­sources for po­lice and fire ser­vices to pro­tect cit­i­zens and busi­ness as­sets.

Singh ac­knowl­edged that the bud­get was pre­sent­ed with a pro­ject­ed deficit of $3.639 bil­lion, say­ing it was ex­pect­ed.

Asked whether he con­sid­ered the bud­get a good one, he of­fered a mea­sured as­sess­ment.

“The bud­get can be de­scribed as a work in progress to bal­ance the bud­get while seek­ing to gen­er­ate For­eign Di­rect In­vest­ment and forex gen­er­a­tion.”

En­er­gy

The Fyz­abad Cham­ber of Com­merce wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s re­newed fo­cus on en­er­gy in the 2027 na­tion­al bud­get but is seek­ing a time­line for the aban­doned high­way project link­ing Point Fortin, Fyz­abad and San Fran­cique.

In its state­ment to the Busi­ness Guardian, the Cham­ber’s spokes­woman, Kavi­ta Dabiedeen, said the or­gan­i­sa­tion sup­port­ed the bud­get’s di­rec­tion but had con­cerns about the im­ple­men­ta­tion of sev­er­al mea­sures and their im­pact on small busi­ness­es.

“We wel­come the re­newed fo­cus on en­er­gy. Our com­mu­ni­ty has long de­pend­ed on oil and gas, so we are en­cour­aged by the new gas projects, in­cen­tives for mar­gin­al oil fields and the phased restart of the Guaracara Re­fin­ery.”

The Cham­ber called for lo­cal con­tent re­quire­ments to be en­forced and ten­ders pub­lished ear­ly so lo­cal con­trac­tors, sup­pli­ers and small busi­ness­es could ben­e­fit from the work.

It al­so wel­comed the com­mit­ment to ad­dress the high­way project but said the bud­get state­ment lacked de­tails.

“How­ev­er, the state­ment gives no route, time­line or fig­ures for it, and we ask gov­ern­ment to give us an ex­pect­ed time­line.”

The Cham­ber wel­comed mea­sures to sup­port agri­cul­ture, in­clud­ing the re­moval of VAT on ma­chin­ery and hy­dro­pon­ic and green­house in­puts, the re­moval of cus­toms du­ty on live­stock feed, and the Farm Busi­ness For­mal­i­sa­tion Pro­gramme.

It called for these mea­sures to be eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble to small farm­ers in Fyz­abad.

The Cham­ber al­so wel­comed im­proved ac­cess to for­eign ex­change for small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es through the Ex­im­Bank and the com­mit­ment to ac­cel­er­ate VAT re­funds, which it said re­mained a con­cern for mem­bers.

It sup­port­ed stronger ac­tion against smug­gling and false de­c­la­ra­tions, along­side faster dig­i­tal cus­toms clear­ance, but called for clear guid­ance and train­ing for small im­porters.

“We sup­port firmer ac­tion on smug­gling and false de­c­la­ra­tions and faster, dig­i­tal cus­toms clear­ance, and ask for plain guid­ance and train­ing so hon­est small im­porters are not pe­nalised for in­no­cent mis­takes.”

While sup­port­ing ef­forts to close tax loop­holes, the Cham­ber backed the in­tro­duc­tion of VAT on for­eign stream­ing ser­vices such as Net­flix from March 1, 2027, while not­ing that house­holds could face high­er bills.

How­ev­er, it ex­pressed con­cern about the 75 per cent cap on car­ried-for­ward loss­es, high­er with­hold­ing tax­es and the in­creased Un­em­ploy­ment Levy on pe­tro­le­um com­pa­nies, all sched­uled to take ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 1, 2027.

“These could squeeze small­er firms in the en­er­gy ser­vices chain.”

It wel­comed the $250 in­crease in se­nior cit­i­zens’, pub­lic as­sis­tance and dis­abil­i­ty grants from Jan­u­ary 2027, say­ing the in­creas­es would help vul­ner­a­ble house­holds man­age costs.

The Cham­ber said it would study the de­tailed mea­sures and in­vite mem­bers to share their views. It al­so called for a skills hub in the South and the de­ploy­ment of se­cu­ri­ty tech­nol­o­gy in the South-West.

“The Cham­ber stands ready to work with gov­ern­ment to turn these an­nounce­ments in­to jobs, in­vest­ment and op­por­tu­ni­ty for Fyz­abad.”

Bud­get’s so­cial fo­cus

The Siparia Cham­ber of Com­merce has wel­comed the so­cial fo­cus of the 2027 na­tion­al bud­get, high­light­ing in­creased grants for vul­ner­a­ble groups, pub­lic sec­tor wage ar­rears pay­ments and in­fra­struc­ture im­prove­ments as key mea­sures.

Cham­ber pres­i­dent Emer­son Ched­die told the Busi­ness Guardian that the bud­get in­clud­ed mea­sures that could ben­e­fit Siparia’s busi­ness­es and res­i­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly through flood mit­i­ga­tion, road up­grades and health­care fa­cil­i­ties.

“What stood out most in the 2027 Na­tion­al Bud­get was its strong so­cial fo­cus. The in­crease in se­nior cit­i­zens’, pub­lic as­sis­tance and dis­abil­i­ty grants by $250 per month, along with the high­er tax-free al­lowance for re­tirees, pro­vides much-need­ed re­lief to vul­ner­a­ble groups.”

Ched­die al­so point­ed to the al­lo­ca­tion of $2.5 bil­lion to set­tle pub­lic sec­tor wage ar­rears, say­ing it sig­nalled the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to ho­n­our com­mit­ments and re­store con­fi­dence.

He not­ed that new tax mea­sures, in­clud­ing VAT on dig­i­tal ser­vices, caps on cor­po­rate loss car­ry-for­wards and sur­charges on high elec­tric­i­ty us­age, re­flect­ed an ef­fort to broad­en the rev­enue base and mod­ernise fis­cal pol­i­cy.

The bud­get’s in­tern­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents were al­so wel­comed as a way to help bridge the gap be­tween ed­u­ca­tion and em­ploy­ment by giv­ing young peo­ple prac­ti­cal path­ways in­to the work­force.

Ched­die said the bud­get’s in­fra­struc­ture pro­vi­sions were par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­e­vant to Siparia, where flood mit­i­ga­tion, road up­grades and health­care fa­cil­i­ties re­mained pri­or­i­ties.

“For Siparia, the most rel­e­vant pri­or­i­ties are the al­lo­ca­tions to­ward flood mit­i­ga­tion, road up­grades, and health­care fa­cil­i­ties, which di­rect­ly ad­dress long-stand­ing in­fra­struc­tur­al chal­lenges in our bor­ough.”

He said the re­newed em­pha­sis on agri­cul­ture, man­u­fac­tur­ing and sup­port for small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es aligned with the Cham­ber’s ad­vo­ca­cy for eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and rur­al en­ter­prise de­vel­op­ment.

Ched­die said these ini­tia­tives, to­geth­er with the in­tern­ship pro­gramme, could sup­port small busi­ness­es, strength­en com­mu­ni­ty re­silience and cre­ate em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple.

He added that the bud­get’s ben­e­fits would de­pend on ef­fec­tive ex­e­cu­tion, with the Cham­ber pre­pared to work with the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure the mea­sures trans­lat­ed in­to tan­gi­ble re­sults for the bor­ough.

“Once it is ex­e­cut­ed ef­fec­tive­ly, the 2027 Bud­get will de­liv­er tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits to Siparia’s busi­ness­es and res­i­dents, and the Cham­ber stands ready to part­ner with Gov­ern­ment to en­sure these na­tion­al ini­tia­tives trans­late in­to re­al im­pact on the ground.”